Bermuda hammer
| Bermuda hammer | ||||||||||||
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Pipilo naufragus | ||||||||||||
| Olson & Wingate , 2012 |
The Bermuda basic bunting ( Pipilo naufragus ) is an extinct Singvogelart from the kind of basic bunting ( Pipilo ) in the family of Neuweltammern (Passerellidae). It was endemic to the Bermuda Islands and is only known from fossil bone material and a travelogue from the early 17th century. The next recent related species is the red chalk bunting ( Pipilo erythrophthalmus ), which occurs with four subspecies in Canada and the United States . The holotype , a complete maxilla, was collected in November 1967 by David B. Wingate at Finch Cave, Hamilton Parish , Government Quarry. A total of 38 bones from at least five specimens are known that were found in the late Quaternary deposits of the Pleistocene and Holocene in various caves.
etymology
The type epithet naufragus (for "stranded", "shipwrecked") is not used in the classic meaning of the term, but is an allusion to the "relictary and isolated distribution" of the Bermuda basement hammer. The very rare sightings of the Eastern Towhee as Irrgast in Bermuda suggest that the ancestors of Bermuda basic Ammer, who had colonized from the mainland Bermuda, were actually stranded. The first human colonists in Bermuda, including William Strachey , who described a bird in 1610 that probably represented this species, were also castaways themselves.
features
The Bermudian ground hammer was anatomically similar to the red chalk hammer, but differed from it in that it had a stronger beak, more robust legs and a reduced wing and chest girdle, with the sternum in particular being shorter and wider and with a much smaller keel (carina).
William Strachey noted in 1610:
"Sparrows as fat and plump as a bunting, bigger than ours."
Way of life
The Bermuda Groundhammer was likely a ground breeder and foraging on the ground. Even if it was not completely incapable of flight, it was apparently only a weak flyer and therefore could not cover long distances.
die out
In the opinion of Olson and Wingate, the Bermuda basement hammer was one of the longest-surviving passerine species known from a small oceanic island prior to human colonization of the Bermuda Islands. It already existed in its morphologically relatively unchanged habitus during the interglacial of the marine oxygen isotope stage 11 (MIS 11) around 400,000 years ago, when the sea level rise reached a level of 21 m and the Bermuda was reduced to a few small islands. However, these must have been large enough to provide an adequate habitat for the ground bammer. The species must therefore have evolved prior to this catastrophic event, preceded by nearly 500,000 years of relative stability, when the sea level fluctuated but was always below the edge of the Bermuda platform, making the island much larger than it is today over that long period of time . The Bermuda Basement survived all of the catastrophic sea level fluctuations that have struck Bermuda since then. The extinction of this species was probably sealed by pigs, rats, cats and habitat destruction. Pigs were already present in Bermuda before Strachey came to the islands in 1609. Rats and cats followed around 1614. Clearing also contributed to the decline of the Bermudian ground hammer, so that this species was probably extinct around 1625. In 2016, the Bermuda Basement Hammer was included in the IUCN's Red List of the Recently Extinct Birds.
literature
- Julian P. Hume : Extinct Birds. (2nd revised edition), Bloomsbury, London, 2017, pp. 364–365. ISBN 978-1-4729-3744-5
Individual evidence
- ^ W. Strachy [= Strachey]: A true reportory of the wreck, and redemption of Sir Thomas Gates Knight; upon, and from the ilands of the Bermudas: his comming to Virginia, and the estate of that Colonie then, and after, under the government of the Lord La Warre, July 15, 1610 . Written by William Strachy [sic], Esquire, 1625, pp. 1734-1758. In: S. Purchas: Hakluytus Posthumus or Purchas his Pilgrimes: contayning a history of the world in sea voyages and lande travells by Englishmen and others , Volume 4, Henrie Fetherstone, London. (Reprinted in Lefroy 1981, p. 35).
- ↑ Storrs L. Olson, David B. Wingate: A new species of towhee (Aves: Emberizidae: Pipilo) from Quaternary deposits on Bermuda . Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington 125 (1), 2012, pp. 85-96.
- ↑ Storrs L. Olson, Paul J. Hearty: A Sustained +21 m Sea-Level Highstand during MIS 11 (400 Ka): Direct Fossil and Sedimentary Evidence from Bermuda . Quaternary Science Reviews, 28 (3-4), 2009, pp. 271-285
- ↑ Pipilo naufragus in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2018.2. Listed by: BirdLife International, 2016. Retrieved December 21, 2018.